rootwork the rootsblog: a cyberhoodoo webspace

rootsbag0425: faith on the frontlines

SUNDAY

babajohn o killens: the great griot master of brooklyn
"i think youve found your voice"

headed for brooklyn for my monthly workshop there
its a great hassle, $100 in gas & tolls, a 10 hour drive roundtrip
and a stack of manuscripts that need reading

but i read the manuscript of one of the workshop members
stacey barney, last night in which she broke thru on a manuscript
she has been struggling with for almost 8 years

stacey was the baby of the workshop
she too has trekked to workshop, first from philly
and then from an mfa program in boston
she has shown the kind of literary heart that a novel requires
and to see her finally as john used to say
find her voice
for this novel made me feel like all the hassle
of maintaining that workshop was worthwhile

i called her, so tickled to be able to say
i think youve found your voice on this one stacey

and that made me remember all the times i would
hear john say that to some student in his workshop
and i felt what he must have felt then

i was thinking just a little while back
while looking at the stacks of manuscript that
are constantly by my bed to be read
students, proteges, workshop members, friends

and how during the semester i am reading about
3 manuscripts a day (shorts) just to keep up
and somebodys novel on the weekends

and still got a backlog of about 3 novels that
have been sitting by my bed for up to 5 months
or so

and i thought about john then and how he
must have felt with all the manuscripts that
he read for us the group of young believers who gathered
around him in his final years and followed him
from school to school and what that must have
cost him in terms of his own work

and sometimes i resent the time effort and money
maintaining the new renaissance workshop costs me
all the hours i could have put into my own work

and sometimes i feel like a fool for not charging folk
most workshops these days are paid operations
while my workshop is brooklyn is strictly oldschool
cause in the 13 years i was in his workshop
john o killens never charged us a dime

and its different when you running a workshop for pay
which i have done,

instead of a gathering of like minded souls
its a gathering of whoever pays you, whether you feel resonance
for their work and their vision or not

but i am of the line of o killens
and though john o gets nothing near like the respect he deserves
everything i do is in his name

and thats a flame i intend to keep burning
thats a flame i hope to pass on to future generations

and when i am able to say to somebody who has struggled
like stacey has struggled, 'i think youve found your voice'
i can feel john o killens standing with me then
it makes it all worthwhile

so anyway, ima close down shop now and get on the road to brooklyn
and i think i might stop by and see ms grace - the queen mother
and i think i will go by johns grave and sit a moment and just
get my batteries recharged

im tired and im weary
and i could use a little rest

in struggle
rickydoc flowers

genocide? in darfur

article about the sudan
reporter interviews many of the leaders
of the sudan and listens to their banal denials
of genocide

tells of photos taken by the african union that show
carpets of the dead

tells of photos of villages burning as far as the eye can see
the vice president of the sudan claims its because they are
made of  straw and accidentally caught fire somehow

to the point where 2 million of the 2.6 million darfurians
are now living in refugee camps and the deathtoll
reaches for half a million

said that the burning has slowed simply because there
are hardly any more villages left to burn

has an account of the leader of the janjaweed
hosting a dinner with the leaders of the Fur
the black tribe for which the area is named
in which the Fur chieftains beg their 'arab' overlords
to let their people return to their burnt out villages
that breaks the heart

just breaks the heart

and one wonders why i am so concerned
with the islamicization of africa

or to be even franker, the islamic conquest
of africa,

people say this is not a religious
issue because they are all muslims

no, they are all blackfolk, some of which
consider themselves so muslim that they
now identify themselves as arabs

warring against blackfolks who
do not identify themselves as arab

folk say its not racial, its tribal
if so, its one that breaks down on arab/black lines

far as im concerned its all part and parcel
of the ongoing islamic conquest of africa

one day very soon islam must be made to understand
that it is a guest in africa and not a conqueror

i try to find the silver lining in this:

perhaps this forced ethnic cleansing
will result in the urbanization of the darfur
perhaps they will militarize themselves to
the point of self defense and even vengeance
perhaps they will reject islamicization
even more emphatically

but these scenarios do not assuage my anger

i want to come to the aid of my beleaguered kin
and cannot, my frustration runneth over

we are so weak that we can only sit and watch now
but i swear by god and all thats holy one day they
will pay

word
by rickydoc flowers

SATURDAY

haiti at the crossroads

the american installed interim govenment of haiti
has been politicing to rejoin the caribbean community
but continues to be rejected until it fulfills certain
conditions including reining in the repression of
aristedes followers and holding a fair and legal
election

the haitian government has tried to peel off the
soft support of the caribbean boycott of haiti
and its refusal to contribute troops to the
occupation but the caribs standing firm on it

their position is there but for the grace of god
go i

meanwhile aristedes former prime minister yvon neptune
has recommenced a hunger strike protesting his
politically based incarceration for the last 10 months

poor haiti

FRIDAY

patology

one of the mfa students here at the cuse
patrick dacey, has a weblog up
patdacey.com  thats bumping

as you know i bemoan that fact
that the literary world has not yet
begun to play the web for the literary instrument
and potential work of art that it is

and it pleases me to see pat dacey
is on the case and the cutting edge

like what he done with it too
i asked him about those flash fiction pieces

cause i would like to do something like that
but fear that daily flash would spotlight too much
of my personal life

so i asked him where did he get his material
he said those are my dreams . . .

"I build a church with my mind. Sometimes I go there to pray. Sometimes I split a piece of mahogahy from the steeple and build a woman and sometimes we pray with our backs to one another, palms of our feet touching, and we could be anyone anywhere, or, more importantly, it could've been her who built the church...."

his dreams
now aint that appropriate
i could work w/that . .

he asked me how i felt about how i chronicle
my struggle with the work ( rest for the weary, book of flowers, etc)
on rootsblog and i told him that
its part of the distinction im making
for rootsblog itself as a literary work

and then we talked about some of the challenges of
literarywork on the web as cutting edge genrework

then we traded some bluestapes

pat love them old country blues that dont move
me as much as the cutting edge

but the boy know his blues, old and new,
and be turning me on to folk i dont know
(ima try this big maceo tape he gave me right now)

anybody who can do that gets my respect as a fellow traveler
and keeper of the flame

good writer too, keep an eye out for him
he like to take his characters to the wall
and break them

hangingtough

arf

okeydoke phase 2: the trojan horse option

okay, so bush has offered his "plan" for saving social security
and we are about to move into an endgame here

what we have got to keep in mind that bush & company is not
trying to save social security, he is trying
to kill it and thats an impo distinction

since they havent been able to convince
the american people to go for the okeydoke
and slit their own retired throats
they have decided to longgame the benefit cut
with this new scenario

diane watson, demo from calif put it well:

"pure and simple, republicans are manufacturing a social security crisis that does not exist in order to dismantle social security. If the republican attempt to cut social security benefits went into effect today in my home state of california, the average recipient would see his or her monthly benefits drop by $393. this represents a significant loss in income for persons, many of whom are retired and on a fixed income. we need to strengthen social security, not launch a trojan horse that will eventually lead to the dismantlement of social security"

and dont you ever think bush is giving up
on his privatization scheme

this is the scenario:

eventually they are going to say we give up
on the privatized social security accounts

& try to come up with a plan reasonable enuf
to peal off some democrats in the senate

then the rightwing thugs in the house are going to
do their oneparty thing to pass what they are
now calling 'a retirement package' that they
hope will hide the pain (like nobody is paying attention?)

and in the congressional conference to synchronize the two
bet your last dollar privatization is going to find its way into that bill

as moderate a version as possible at first, barely enuf to object to
but it shall spawn like the trojan trick that it is

and if it doesnt, the backup plan is to transform social security
from a retirement safety net to a welfare program for the poor
will make it susceptible to a loss of the general support
it now engenders,

as we have seen the rightwing ascendancy doesnt mind
waiting a couple of generations for their game to manifest

they are talking about up to 40% cuts for folk like me
who depending on social security to help me out

this cutback would be on top of the one attending the
privatized accounts

even with no deal, social security will be able to
pay 80% of the current payments so if this is
the best you can do just leave it alone

a 20% cut i can live with, 40 would kill me

the easiest and fairest way to address the shortfall would
be to remove the $90,000 dollar cap but the problem with that
is that it would save social security as is and they dont want that

we have to remember, they arent trying to save social security
they are trying to kill it - we cant ever forget that

its almost laughable that bush and the rightwing are all of
a sudden concerned about the poor when their primary governing
philsophy all along is winner take all capitalism and
the rest be damned

now all of a sudden they concerned about the poor
this is a travesty

thats why the democs are saying no deal until
the president publicly removes privatization
from the board

(i guess i should be calling that personal accounts
like all the other media voices that have been disciplined
on the semantics of this struggle)

so the democs have been saying no deal until
the president publicly removes so called personal accounts
from the table

and they should reject this latest scenario out of hand

they are going to be accused of being obstructionist by
the republican machine so we cant fall for that okeydoke

we have to support them in this reaguard defense they have mounted
pat them on the back, give them a cool drink of water
when they need it

they been putting up the good fight lately
and just between me and you
im proud of them

in struggle
rickydoc flowers

THURSDAY

family values

i feel like im gossiping w/this one
but its so juicy i cant help myself

apparently mfume didnt resign from
the naacp because of differences over direction

but because him and his sons were treating
the naacp like it was their own little harem

promoting women they were involved with
punishing ones that resisted

at least the ben chavis was only
procuring for himself

mfume brought his sons
to the trough

WEDNESDAY

where do they find these people

judge janice brown, one of the controversial 10 judges
renominated by george bush
gave a speech at a gathering of catholic lawyers
called the 'red mass' (sounds ominous doesnt it)
on the same day as frists war against the faith speech
in which she declared a war against secular humanists

"There seems to have been no time since the Civil War that this country was so bitterly divided. It's not a shooting war, but it is a war.  These are perilous times for people of faith."

she went on to say that religion is the only basis of american freedom
and that atheism has "handed human destiny over to the great god, autonomy, and this is quite a different idea of freedom…. Freedom then becomes willfulness."

no janice, its perilous times for the rest of us
the socalled 'people of faith' are doing quite well thankyou

the rightwing runs everything now and want to take away
the last bulwark against the one party state
the little piddling filibuster that the democs now depend on
to resist the rightwing juggernauht

and who has decided that those who dont want
the religious views of fundamentalists imposed on us
arent also people of faith

this is the judge bush wants to impose upon us
black too i might add, or at least colored
(where do they find these people)
one who called the new deal
"a triumph of socialism"

oh these are some perilous times
for those of us who have faith in america
and what it stands for

we the ones gotta
keep the faith

arf

race. racism, and the hoodoo way

once again i have been accused of being a racist
i get this charge all the time and im very susceptible to it
as you can probably tell from my many protestations
of being a black voice

recently received an request to join the hooodoo way listserve
from a practitioner on the rootwork list
as i knew of her i replied that it was a small list and black

next thing i knew she has placed what i thought was
a personal reply to a sincere inquiry on her weblog
with commentary as follows

i shall remove her name because i dont want
to get involved in a catfight:

i was wandering about the internet when i found
this my email to her on her weblog in following post:

Good Morning Occulties..
So we have our answer on "The Hoodoo Way," and here it is:

hello (nameless), rickydoc here

sorry about just getting back to you
about the hoodoo way
i dont really go checking that subscriber request thing
unless im in there for some reason or the other
hope you havent been hanging there long

im familiar with your work from your posts
from the rootwork list and you are a practitioner
that i respect which is why im answering

the hoodoo way is a very small list of about 20 25 folk
invitation only and black
its primary concern is hoodoo as an instrument of cultural guidance
the evolution of hoodoo as the indigenous african american spiritual system
with a responsibility for shaping the destiny of the race
the evolution of african american culture

hope you dont feel offended or anything
i am a believer in the cross cultural future of hoodoo

but my primary concern is hoodoo as a system of
african american cultural guidance

again, i hope you are not in some way offended
i respect you and your approach to practice

be well
arf

her commentary was as follows, not to me mind you
but on her weblog:

Very interesting. I have replied back that it is understandable that I am not welcome, seeing as that I am not African-American, or even African...well, at least for several milennia back. ;) Tho, to be honest, I don't think I can trace myself back past Charlamagne...and that's iffy at best. I do know I am related to Robert the Bruce, but I suspect being the relative of a Scottish king (and most of us Scot's are, since the guy had about 18 kids,) is not the same as being Black.

Although I understand this reasoning, I am not so much in agreement. I was a practicing Druid for awhile, and did not think that others needed to be of Irish descent (as I also am,) to be Druid... Or that Druidism was a way of shaping the current life of Irish people where ever we are, and that our experience was only unique to the Irish, and that no one could learn anything by participating...you know, and Druidism is a RELIGION, and not a magic/kal platform... I just felt that others and also practitioners had to understand that Druidism is not really Celticism, and that even when I was a Celt Reconstructionalist (also a relgion,) that none of that CR was Wicca. :) Also, a system of magic/k, IMHO, is not a form of socio-cultural guidance, and also as Hoodoo is not a religion but solely a system of magic/k, nor is it specifically created only by or for African-Americans...how is it a for of socio-cultural/ethnic group guidance at all? Please refer to the post "What Platform Is this Anyway," to discover how Hoodoo is actually a big melting pot of cultural beliefs owing a good deal of thanks to African-Americans, but not even close to as much as say, Vodou (which is a RELIGION) owes to Africans.

Anyhow, label me racist if you would like, but this feels very reverse racist to me. I was very polite to Rickydoc, but all of the same... I appreciate the cold rejection letter, and do not appreciate being kept out of a group solely because of my race, especially in regards to a magic/kal platform rather than a religion...tho either is unacceptable. I guess I can't chirp on about the Black experience in America, tho, so for that reason I guess my pasty skin would disclude me. I did date someone who was an 8th Black in college, and he would be just as good as I am about talking about the Black experience (which is no good at all,) so I really don't see how the color of one's skin is so important...hmmm...I never really judged anyone on their race or color of their skin, so I guess I will never understand. Ah well...worse things have happened
.

i also get these kinds of responses when i do newsletters
that are overtly addressed to solving black issues
this is a big issue for any blackvoice trying to represent blackfolk these days
whenever blackfolk try to get together and address issues that concern us
we are accused of being reverse racists

but if i was to have let her in
it would have chilled frank conversation amongst us

it would have been just like the general hoodoo membership forums
that we are all part of

and not one concerned with hoodoos role as a cultural instrument
as the indigenous african american spiritual system

we have had all these folk who come to hoodoo
as the spiritual flavor of the month
after they have tried druidism, wicca, whatever
and then start telling us what our tradition is about
they are concerned only with folkmagic and with spells of various sorts
and anything else is frowned upon
any consideration of hoodoos traditional role of community guidance
and consideration of hoodoos traditional role of cultural guidance
and the role that we would like to have it play of destinic guidance
is of absolutely no interest to them
because they arent african american
and the hoodoo world they see is stripped of all its cultural responsibilities
they would act as if gullah jack, boukman dutty, nanny accompong, and
zumbi of palmares never existed
and that hoodoo never had a role of protecting and guiding the community
as does any spiritual system worth the time of day

they would have hoodoo be strictly a spicer newage flavor of wicca
and i object to that
i am not interested in folk magic practice
i am interested in high magic practice

this is not necessarily a racial distinction
but it occasionally becomes one

most of the spirtual travelers who light upon hoodoo
for the moment are about a 100 years out of date
in their practice of hoodoo

like folk who come to the blues and think only
old country blues are valid blues while ignoring
folk pushing the envelop like little axe or
chris thomas king

they practice archival hoodoo

and they come into the hoodoo tradition and
start making pronouncement about how hoodoo aint black no more

and make big issue of the fact that hoodoo has all these other
traditions that contribute to its thread and that makes it not african american
anymore, but african american culture has always been a bastard culture
composed of many threads, and so too is hoodoo

the primary objection here is that so many of our cultural instruments
get taken over by the majority culture and get pronounced sanitized

or the lesser more commercial elements get emphasized
while the spiritual core is gutted

often these folk come into the tradition and because they have good
organizing skills, resources, etc, (or looking at it strictly as a cashcow)
they become the acknowledged authorities
and use that power to start telling us what we can and cannot do

and we supposed to just sit back and say okay

im often asked when making presentations on the circuit
can whitefolk play the blues
my response is that if i can write novels, they can play the blues

but one hopes they have immersed themselves in the tradition
to the point where its instinct and not rote
and conduct themselves with a little cultural humility
when it come to proscribing what is and what aint

because i want african american culture to be one of the worlds definitive cultures
i want other folk to adopt african american culture

so i am totally in favor of the multiculti nature of hoodoo today
i love the fact that so many folk from so many cultures aspire to the hoodoo way
and i participate in general forums

but the roots of hoodoo are thoroughly grounded in african american culture
and destiny
and there are issues of cultural guidance here that aint got nothing to do w/whitefolk

and thats just the way that it is

she wrote in post above:
"Also, a system of magic/k, IMHO, is not a form of socio-cultural guidance, and also as Hoodoo is not a religion but solely a system of magic/k, nor is it specifically created only by or for African-Americans...how is it a for of socio-cultural/ethnic group guidance at all?"

my point exactly, she doesnt have a clue
she fiddling around on the surface of the game and doesnt have a
clue just how deep the roots go

folk like this want to strip hoodoo of all its cultural responsibilities
and tiptoe through a lala land of magical spells and witchery
of a tradition with no deeper meaning than making a living
off the pain of others

i have never said whitefolk etc shouldnt be allowed to practice hoodoo
and i have not tried to restrict different interpretations of what hoodoo practice entails
hoodoo is eclectic enuf to cover a wide variety of practice

but they have tried to tell me my downhome brand of hoodoo is unacceptable
gon come into our tradition, take over and tell us what we can and cannot do

dubois said a longtime ago, we got to live in two worlds
we live in the whiteworld and we live in the blackworld
once upon a time we had to deny our world to fit into theirs
that is no longer the case

we will not be defined out of existence

our struggle is to survive in the multiculti world of the future
as a distinct culture and people, distinct and empowered
while yet part of the multiculti thread

we wil not be defined out of existence

this is a standing tension for intellectuals and players
of my generation and i often feel out of touch with my insistence
on being a black voice

and when i get hit with those charges of racism
they make me squirm
and i try to make what adjustments i can to address that concern

i understand that this position makes her feel excluded
and i sympathize, makes me feel bad and perhaps wrong

but there are times when blackfolk have to come together
and address our concerns, without overseers warping the conversation

instead of discussing our issues
the conversation gets shifted to defending the right
to discuss our issues

fubu

if it makes her feel any better, i get a lot of flack from blackfolk too
about my interpertation of contemporary hoodoo
i get it from all sides

and in this case its clear that i made the right choice telling her no
cause she wasnt sincerely interested in dialogue
she just wanted to make a point and be a spy

a bad vibe

just the kind we
trying to avoid

in struggle
rickydoc flowers

once again i have been accused of being a racist
i get this charge all the time and im very susceptible to it
as you can probably tell from my many protestations
of being a black voice

recently received an request to join the hooodoo way listserve
from a practitioner on the rootwork list
as i knew of her i replied that it was a small list and black

next thing i knew she has placed what i thought was
a personal reply to a sincere inquiry on her weblog
with commentary as follows

i shall remove her name because i dont want
to get involved in a catfight:

i was wandering about the internet when i found
this my email to her on her weblog in following post:

Good Morning Occulties..
So we have our answer on "The Hoodoo Way," and here it is:

hello (nameless), rickydoc here

sorry about just getting back to you
about the hoodoo way
i dont really go checking that subscriber request thing
unless im in there for some reason or the other
hope you havent been hanging there long

im familiar with your work from your posts
from the rootwork list and you are a practitioner
that i respect which is why im answering

the hoodoo way is a very small list of about 20 25 folk
invitation only and black
its primary concern is hoodoo as an instrument of cultural guidance
the evolution of hoodoo as the indigenous african american spiritual system
with a responsibility for shaping the destiny of the race
the evolution of african american culture

hope you dont feel offended or anything
i am a believer in the cross cultural future of hoodoo

but my primary concern is hoodoo as a system of
african american cultural guidance

again, i hope you are not in some way offended
i respect you and your approach to practice

be well
arf

her commentary was as follows, not to me mind you
but on her weblog:

Very interesting. I have replied back that it is understandable that I am not welcome, seeing as that I am not African-American, or even African...well, at least for several milennia back. ;) Tho, to be honest, I don't think I can trace myself back past Charlamagne...and that's iffy at best. I do know I am related to Robert the Bruce, but I suspect being the relative of a Scottish king (and most of us Scot's are, since the guy had about 18 kids,) is not the same as being Black.

Although I understand this reasoning, I am not so much in agreement. I was a practicing Druid for awhile, and did not think that others needed to be of Irish descent (as I also am,) to be Druid... Or that Druidism was a way of shaping the current life of Irish people where ever we are, and that our experience was only unique to the Irish, and that no one could learn anything by participating...you know, and Druidism is a RELIGION, and not a magic/kal platform... I just felt that others and also practitioners had to understand that Druidism is not really Celticism, and that even when I was a Celt Reconstructionalist (also a relgion,) that none of that CR was Wicca. :) Also, a system of magic/k, IMHO, is not a form of socio-cultural guidance, and also as Hoodoo is not a religion but solely a system of magic/k, nor is it specifically created only by or for African-Americans...how is it a for of socio-cultural/ethnic group guidance at all? Please refer to the post "What Platform Is this Anyway," to discover how Hoodoo is actually a big melting pot of cultural beliefs owing a good deal of thanks to African-Americans, but not even close to as much as say, Vodou (which is a RELIGION) owes to Africans.

Anyhow, label me racist if you would like, but this feels very reverse racist to me. I was very polite to Rickydoc, but all of the same... I appreciate the cold rejection letter, and do not appreciate being kept out of a group solely because of my race, especially in regards to a magic/kal platform rather than a religion...tho either is unacceptable. I guess I can't chirp on about the Black experience in America, tho, so for that reason I guess my pasty skin would disclude me. I did date someone who was an 8th Black in college, and he would be just as good as I am about talking about the Black experience (which is no good at all,) so I really don't see how the color of one's skin is so important...hmmm...I never really judged anyone on their race or color of their skin, so I guess I will never understand. Ah well...worse things have happened
.

i also get these kinds of responses when i do newsletters
that are overtly addressed to solving black issues
this is a big issue for any blackvoice trying to represent blackfolk these days
whenever blackfolk try to get together and address issues that concern us
we are accused of being reverse racists

but if i was to have let her in
it would have chilled frank conversation amongst us

it would have been just like the general hoodoo membership forums
that we are all part of

and not one concerned with hoodoos role as a cultural instrument
as the indigenous african american spiritual system

we have had all these folk who come to hoodoo
as the spiritual flavor of the month
after they have tried druidism, wicca, whatever
and then start telling us what our tradition is about
they are concerned only with folkmagic and with spells of various sorts
and anything else is frowned upon
any consideration of hoodoos traditional role of community guidance
and consideration of hoodoos traditional role of cultural guidance
and the role that we would like to have it play of destinic guidance
is of absolutely no interest to them
because they arent african american
and the hoodoo world they see is stripped of all its cultural responsibilities
they would act as if gullah jack, boukman dutty, nanny accompong, and
zumbi of palmares never existed
and that hoodoo never had a role of protecting and guiding the community
as does any spiritual system worth the time of day

they would have hoodoo be strictly a spicer newage flavor of wicca
and i object to that
i am not interested in folk magic practice
i am interested in high magic practice

this is not necessarily a racial distinction
but it occasionally becomes one

most of the spirtual travelers who light upon hoodoo
for the moment are about a 100 years out of date
in their practice of hoodoo

like folk who come to the blues and think only
old country blues are valid blues while ignoring
folk pushing the envelop like little axe or
chris thomas king

they practice archival hoodoo

and they come into the hoodoo tradition and
start making pronouncement about how hoodoo aint black no more

and make big issue of the fact that hoodoo has all these other
traditions that contribute to its thread and that makes it not african american
anymore, but african american culture has always been a bastard culture
composed of many threads, and so too is hoodoo

the primary objection here is that so many of our cultural instruments
get taken over by the majority culture and get pronounced sanitized

or the lesser more commercial elements get emphasized
while the spiritual core is gutted

often these folk come into the tradition and because they have good
organizing skills, resources, etc, (or looking at it strictly as a cashcow)
they become the acknowledged authorities
and use that power to start telling us what we can and cannot do

and we supposed to just sit back and say okay

im often asked when making presentations on the circuit
can whitefolk play the blues
my response is that if i can write novels, they can play the blues

but one hopes they have immersed themselves in the tradition
to the point where its instinct and not rote
and conduct themselves with a little cultural humility
when it come to proscribing what is and what aint

because i want african american culture to be one of the worlds definitive cultures
i want other folk to adopt african american culture

so i am totally in favor of the multiculti nature of hoodoo today
i love the fact that so many folk from so many cultures aspire to the hoodoo way
and i participate in general forums

but the roots of hoodoo are thoroughly grounded in african american culture
and destiny
and there are issues of cultural guidance here that aint got nothing to do w/whitefolk

and thats just the way that it is

she wrote in post above:
"Also, a system of magic/k, IMHO, is not a form of socio-cultural guidance, and also as Hoodoo is not a religion but solely a system of magic/k, nor is it specifically created only by or for African-Americans...how is it a for of socio-cultural/ethnic group guidance at all?"

my point exactly, she doesnt have a clue
she fiddling around on the surface of the game and doesnt have a
clue just how deep the roots go

folk like this want to strip hoodoo of all its cultural responsibilities
and tiptoe through a lala land of magical spells and witchery
of a tradition with no deeper meaning than making a living
off the pain of others

i have never said whitefolk etc shouldnt be allowed to practice hoodoo
and i have not tried to restrict different interpretations of what hoodoo practice entails
hoodoo is eclectic enuf to cover a wide variety of practice

but they have tried to tell me my downhome brand of hoodoo is unacceptable
gon come into our tradition, take over and tell us what we can and cannot do

dubois said a longtime ago, we got to live in two worlds
we live in the whiteworld and we live in the blackworld
once upon a time we had to deny our world to fit into theirs
that is no longer the case

we will not be defined out of existence

our struggle is to survive in the multiculti world of the future
as a distinct culture and people, distinct and empowered
while yet part of the multiculti thread

we wil not be defined out of existence

this is a standing tension for intellectuals and players
of my generation and i often feel out of touch with my insistence
on being a black voice

and when i get hit with those charges of racism
they make me squirm
and i try to make what adjustments i can to address that concern

i understand that this position makes her feel excluded
and i sympathize, makes me feel bad and perhaps wrong

but there are times when blackfolk have to come together
and address our concerns, without overseers warping the conversation

instead of discussing our issues
the conversation gets shifted to defending the right
to discuss our issues

fubu

if it makes her feel any better, i get a lot of flack from blackfolk too
about my interpertation of contemporary hoodoo
i get it from all sides

and in this case its clear that i made the right choice telling her no
cause she wasnt sincerely interested in dialogue
she just wanted to make a point and be a spy

a bad vibe

just the kind we
trying to avoid

in struggle
rickydoc flowers

rootsbag0415: back in the saddle and the trap of social security add ons

SUNDAY

floridas at it again

how many st peterburgs florida police officers
does it take to arrest an unruly 5 year old black girl
accused of acting out in kindergarten

only 3 apparently
if they can use the cuffs on her

watch it yourself if you dont believe me

SATURDAY

cant fool mother nature

bush was set up to do one of his infamous
photoops in the smokey mountains natural park
working on a wilderness trail and proclaiming
his administration to be pro environment

but a thunderstorm sent him instead to an
airplane hanger to give his its not easy being green speech

some irony there
i guess you can fool the people most of the time
but you cant fool mother nature

is it something in the air

some conservative evangelical school
had to sequester its black and latino students
because of hate mail threatening them

that must have been some pretty strong hatemail
for them to have taken a step that almost insures more of it

whats with all this overt racism, first neworleans now this
reminds me of the guy being drug behind the truck in texas
we keep thinking we have gotten over that phase of racism
and keep being reminded that we have not

i think the bush administrations fundamentalist aura
encourages retro thinking and actions myself
interesting too that this would be at a conservative
evangelical institution, its so representative of
the rightwings harsh interpretation of godlike

vigilance my people
eternal vigilance

we have come such a long such a long long way
but we still got so very far to go

speaking of which

latest developments in the sudan:
none: samo samo
latest developments in haiti
none: samo samo

flashing it

my student, gordon hyppolite, young brother w/a bullet
showed me how to do flash and by george i think
i got it this time

hes a good teacher, made it clear in such a way that its
never been before and not only that he showed me how
to get that 21st century webwork look, he was real dismissive
as only the young gifted and black can be, oh thats easy
he sneered when i showed him what i want

what i really should do is just hire somebody to do my webwork
thats the sensible way to go, hire somebody to do your site
but i have been trained in hypertext and i think of webwork as
just another literary art form (jeff parkers insidiuous influence)
and one that i would still like to master

im gone, arm still hurting, still trying to take it easy
and prepare for the big race

onelove
rickydoc

WEDNESDAY

keeping the faith

was listening to this npr broadcast
interviewing british journalist who had
written book about the holocaust

he was asked did he have anything new
to add to a much worked subject
he said he was struck by the role faith
had played

said that himmler and the commandant
of auschwitz would often point out
jehovahs witnesses among their prisoners
because the calm acceptance of their fate
that their faith allowed

and mention that that was the kind of faith
they needed to have in the fuher

and since then the journalist said hes been
leery of folk and communities who have that
absolute faith that they are right

and i was thinking about that faith
and how i want folk to have that faith in hoodoo
how hoodoo boasting is designed to
give folk that faith in your power to heal them

and i thought about how hoodoo is under pressure
from the atr traditions because we are the skeptics
of the atr world

whereas the other traditions, initiatory traditions
are big on demanding that absolute faith in their gods
and their religious strictures
and that absolute faith and service to their initiatory godparent system
and how much i struggle not to let hoodoo get took over by that religious
worldview as we move in closer coordination with the atr world

that works for them
but i like the power of being a magical system
that questions everything, that questions the very nature of reality

but even then if you dont have faith in the magical act it doesnt work
i mean absolute unquestioning faith

so i guess we are just as dependent on faith at the atr folk are
and this, my latest attempt to make a holier than thou case
falls flat on its face

i guess the whole point is to
while attempting to build a community of faith
to once again build those safeguards into my vision

if you would build a community of power
you must build an ethics of power as critial foundation

or something along these lines

i was just thinking too about the kind of faith that makes a sorceror
the faith in the workings of your magic
and the same kind of faith that is necessary to manifest as a prophet
that absolute faith that you are in truth an instrument of the universal impulse
to higher ground

or if you prefer a more faith based prhaseology, an instrument of the gods

thinking about the power that faith gives

and im thinking too about the rise of fundamentalism in our times
christian fundamentalism in the usa
hindu, islamic and jewish fundamentalism
political fundamentalisms of various stripes
and the vicious types of wars they breed

the trickster moves with weary caution
for these are some strange and trying times
and faith a double edged sword

TUESDAY

rickydocs lovespell #1

i would like to thank all the folk who have
showed the love
regarding my last couple of challenging months

weblog comments, emails, inquiries, phonecalls, fetishes, spells and so forth
i appreciated them all

strive i to be worthy of all that love
may it be returned tenfold

rickydoc

MONDAY

whatup world
dont know why im so chipper
i still got issues but for some
reason im feeling good at the moment

okay, a few quickies and im out of here

down in the french quarter of new orleans
after sophomore levon jones was killed by bouncers in neworleans bar
the city commissioned the local housing group to
run biracial tester teams
found that blackfolk charged more for their drinks
that they were often accused of violating dress code
when similarly dressed white tester was not
and told there was a drink minimum when white
test was not

this is amazing to me that this kind of thing could still exist
i guess im just a dreamer i would have swore we were beyond
all that, just goes to show you

people always telling me that i shouldnt represent
that i shoulld speak for all people rather than just black people
and i have to tell them all the time
blackpeople standing at the crossroads
we either get the good foot or we go down

all over the world blackpeople suffering
and i aint blaming nobody but black people
and thats my primary audience, always gon be

me talking about blackpeople please
lets please get our act together

im what they used to call a raceman
and perhaps out of step w/my times
racework is considered quaint these days
but when i was coming up it was the expectation

i am a child of the 60s and proud of it

i am too deep in the tradition to be anything but
most primarily a voice to and for blackpeople

yes i want to be a voice of all humanity also
but thats secondary

blackfolk need me
whether they realize it or not they need me
and im gon be down till the day i die

dont care if i dont ever get no play for it
ima be down till the day i die
till the day i die

and then some

hoodoo online

was looking at the website of this brother
dr. kioni

and man you talking about some envy
brother here working the net

and if i was a conventional kind of hoodooman
this what i would be doing too

im supposed to be meeting with one of my students
friday and he supposed to show me how to do flash
i say supposed because ive had students show me before
and it just goes in one ear and out the other

what i got to do is obsess about it
soon as he show me how to do it i got to spend a weekend
immersed in it and doing this project i got in mind
then i will have it
then i got to get me some more online graphic skilz

man i love the way this brother kioni working his game
if i was a conventional hoodooman searching for clients
thats the way i would work it too

but im not a conventional hoodooman trolling for clients
i do individual healings, all the time, it comes w/the territory
but that aint what move me
what move me is healing the whole fucking race
and all fucking humanity

thats what move me
i want to heal what ail them
i want to be a spiritdoctor

and i want to put a healing on the soul of humanity
and blackfolk/culture gon be the instrument of
my great healing

de geas of rickydoc

the industry offered me a three book deal for mojo rising
said art we love your new work but we gon take out all the 'uncomfortable' passages
we gon make it a "giftbook'

a giftbook, sitting by the checkout counter

sounds like an insult but actually they were trying to look out for me
old friends trying to come up with some way to give arthur some play

they were offering to back me as a newage hoodoo guru
i was tempted, im capable of running newage game, i got the charismatic skilz
and i had visions of million dollar checks

but here i was trying to define hoodoo as one of the worlds great spiritual traditions
and the industry was trying to define me (and hoodoo) as newage spiritual pop

oh no no no, rickydoc is the conjuror up in here

about the same time sheree was starting wanganegresse press and she saw it like i saw it
i had one of those classic artistic dilemma, the industry or an alternative startup
i went with sheree and the start up and at least its the Work i wanted it to be
its been stumbling around beneath the radar but at least it exists

i wanna be a different kind of hoodoo man from whats conventionally expected of hoodoo
]i want to transform the definition of what it means to be a hoodooman

i want to do highmagic, i want to shape reality and contribute to the enhancement of the human condition, i want to shape the future of humanity and the evolution of all things

i want hoodoo to be one of the worlds respected spiritual/magical systems
and not just a cultural curiosity
i want the hoodoos who come after me to be powers on this earth
i want the hoodoos who come after me to be true force
i want the hoodoos who come after me to reach for higher ground

so ima have to upgrade my website work
the internet is one of the most powerful
contemporary magical instruments
on the board of destiny
and rickydoc is here to play

rootwork.com been oldschool for about 5 years now and i just havent had
the time to really upgrade it

and my hoodoo online manual is still just an idea,
i got bogged down trying to make frames work
while this brother kioni got that 21st century look happening
(got a onlineradio station/education thing going too
this brother got a primetime operation)

so i got to get my online acts together
and now i got to make this hoodoo journal idea i got in mind
happen

whose got time to do all that
and write a novel too

but ima make time
time to upgrade rootwork.com
make rickydocs online hooodoo manual primetime
make this hoodoo journal idea happen
try to move my webwork into the 21st cen . .

uh . . .i got to go
i did not meant to do all this typing
ive done no novelwork this morning
and my arm is already hurting

later
arf

SATURDAY

hello world

ima try to get busy again
seems i have nerve damage in my neck
thats causing me to have major pain
up and down my right arm
whenever i sit, much less type

have recovered from various surgeries
but this arm has got me by the particulars
and afraid to bull through it for fear of it
becoming chronic

doing my physical therapy, studying ergonomics
and revising my work areas
but mostly refraining from typing until its better
i figure better a couple of months off than problems
for the next 20 years

but some things i just cant avoid
like news of bushs recent offers to compromise
by accepting social security add ons

the trick of add ons

im concerned the demos are being set up by bush
on this add on option for social security, add ons are a trap gang
if bush gets add ons hes won, that money still got to come from
the government to set up his fiscally unsound program
who cares whether they say its come from social security or not

they will still have to cut back benefits and rise taxes somehow
and they will do whatever it is they wanted to do all along
and just say the money comes from outside social security

god help us if we have fought him to a draw all this time
only to let him get what he wants and call it a compromise

black pot mojo

was perusing my stats as i sometimes do
to see where frometh cometh my traffic
and ran across something called black pot mojo

curious i went looking and found a hoodoo blog
by my homegirl sheree reneee thomas
black pot mojo: occasional musings, magick and lore
from sheree renee thomas

 i was just too tickled
thats my homegirl you know
running her hoodoo memphis style
(memphis got a particular brand of hoodoo i tell you
gon force the world to acknowledge, gon bend reality to our will)

she talking bout her personals
reviewing theatre and cultural events from the tradition
in the city
putting in excerpts from her work,
(including work in progress: the bonecarver)
making hoodoo commentary
all in her own sweet style

in fact i was jealous when i read it cause i like her style
better than i like mine but you know how that goes
you always envy your buddies when they get a sweet lick

her most recent post she talk about sekous recent
performance at the apollo and all kinds of rootwork matters

yall know how much i envy that online network the bookeristas got
its only fitting that me and sheree be seeds of a hoodoo network
memphis style

progressive afroam literary/griotic network
deep in the tradition

sheree wear many hats: acclaimed scifi writer
editor of  darkmatters 1 & 2: (acclaimed black scifi anthologies)
publisher of wanganegresse press (which pubbed mojo rising)
listmaster of anansi: african american storytelling list
literary activist on afroam literary infrastructure duty
member of new renaissance writers guild

fullservice player
trickster from the oldschool
devotee of the conqueror

personal statement on another site::

I was born with twin tongues - part elderstory and praisesong, black pot mojo and lore, my stories and poetry reflect my family's roots and history in the Mississippi Delta, the experiences that shaped our traditions and speech.

As a multigenre artist, I have many interests, with the common thread of narrative. This new year has found me increasingly fascinated by storytelling, as I have discovered that in the performance of story, whether true tale or myth, comes understanding, born from the act itself.

I am interested in the way language and literature, our stories in particular, function in social settings; how stories and the folk knowledge contained in them are passed on (or not) across generations.

As I gather my rootwork, I hope to conjure art that lives beyond the page, casting a positive spell on readers as they journey through life.

thats my homegirl
she has always done me proud
she got the longgame

stay with her now
black pot mojo
a magic carpet ride
deltastyle

hanging tough
arf